Monthly Archives:
December 2012
12/12/Oisin.jpg” alt=”” width=”380″ height=”370″ />
The Celtic Christmas spirit continues this week.
The Delco Gaels’ Christmas party and their fundraising Nite at the Races is being held at Maggie O’Neill’s in Drexel Hill on Saturday night. They’ll also be revealing the contestants for their major fundraiser, Dancing Like a Star, which will be held in 2013.
Check out the decked halls at the Irish Center on Sunday—it’s the first ever open house at the Commodore Barry Club in Mt. Airy, the heart of the Irish community. You can catch the Sunday Irish radio shows live—right at the center. There will be music, dancing, local authors, and of course, the conviviality that lives at the center’s cozy bar.
Also on Sunday, catch the second and last Celtic Christmas at Doe Run at St. Malachi’s in Cochranville, featuring Burning Bridget Cleary.
Not Christmassy, but a fine night out nonetheless, you can hear George Donaldson of the group Celtic Thunder at The Plough and the Stars on Sunday night. He’ll be singing tunes from his debut album, The White Rose.
On Monday, the Irish Center is the venue for a seniors’ lunch, preceded by a special Advent mass said by Msgr. Joseph McLoone.
On Thursday, the Irish American Business Chamber and Network is holding its Christmas party at the Plough and the Stars in Philadelphia. Enjoy the hors d’oeuvres and the networking.
Also on Thursday, the Celtic Trio—Maggie Sansone with Sharon Knowles and Andrea Hoag—will be performing “sounds of the season” at Blue Ball Barn in Wilmington, DE on hammered dulcimer, Celtic harp, and fiddle.
On Friday, put on your dancing shoes and head back to the Irish Center for the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s annual Christmas Ceili, featuring Kevin McGillian and Friends, the region’s best ceili band.
Coming up in the next couple of weeks—Cherish the Ladies will be at Annenberg with their Christmas show, and Irish Christmas in America, with Oisin Mac Diarmada of Teada, Aaron Jones of Old Blind Dogs, and Seamus Begley from West Kerry, will be at Sellersville Theatre
Colleen and Noreen soak up the applause after their duet.
Before the show started, Kathleen Madigan, dressed in her dark green velvet Irish dance costume, made the announcement. The audience had to be patient. Some of the dancers needed a little extra time to get into place.
The audience was more than patient as the Divine Providence Village Rainbow Irish Dancers, a group of developmentally disabled women at the Catholic Charities-supported community, joined with the Irish Stars Parker School of Irish Dance from Hellertown for their first Christmas recital. They were enthralled–and maybe, at some points, a little bit teary eyed.
The dancers performed a dozen numbers, this little group that started less than two years ago, the offshoot of an every-other-Saturday Irish dance class that Madigan was teaching. The troupe was born when Madigan, former nutritionist at Divine Providence and a student at the Parker School, realized that some of the women were pretty good dancers–and terrific performers. Their first recital followed their first-ever appearance at the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade last March, where they earned the Mary Theresa Dougherty Award for the outstanding organization dedicated to serving God’s people in the community. The women also performed on the field during Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies in June. They’ve learned many more dances since then, says Madigan. Enough to have a holiday recital.
The Christmas Show was held at the Cardinal Krol Center in Springfield, Montgomery County, on Sunday, December 2. Proceeds from the show will go toward buying the dancers logo jackets to wear at the parade.
Organizers Brian McGarrity and Charlie Lord
A little boy from Belfast continues to hold a special place in the hearts of the Philadelphia Irish community.
Everywhere you looked at a jam-packed fundraiser at Tír na nÓg Bar & Grill in Center City on Sunday, there were reminders of Oscar Knox, a 4-year-old boy from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder and high risk neuroblastoma, a quite rare and aggressive childhood cancer.
Guests wore commemorative “Wee Oscar” T-shirts, pictures of the smiling boy flashed by on monitors throughout the bar, and musicians like John Byrne and Seamus Kelleher, who donated their time, never passed up a chance to remind everyone why they were there.
The grand total raised: $27,000.
On Sunday, organizer Brian McGarrity couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how much money was pouring into the local fund’s coffers—but he knew it was going to be big.
“We had sold maybe 200 to 250 tickets beforehand. I would say we might have sold at least another 100 to 150 at the door,” said McGarrity, straining to be heard over the happy crowd noise.
Perhaps no one should have been surprised by the outcome. At an October bake sale at Sacred Heart Parish in Havertown, Delaware County, McGarrity, his wife Laurie, and friends had hoped for a profit of $1,000; they wound up with $8,000.
The McGarritys and their friends first came to know Oscar Knox when he and his parents, Steven and Leona, came to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in early October for a course of immunotherapy for his cancer. In a heartbreaking turn of events, Oscar developed pulmonary hypertension, an also rare condition affecting the lungs and heart. He had to discontinue immunotherapy and return home to North Ireland.
“We’re originally from Northern Ireland (County Tyrone), where Oscar is from,” said McGarrity. “It’s very, very big news in Northern Ireland. We had seen from watching the news from home that this little guy was coming to CHOP for treatment. There were a few of us who put together a hamper to send down to the family. Aisling Travers and Fidelma McGroary brought it down. That kind of got a connection going with the family, and then it just progressed.”
Despite the bad news and the family’s return to Northern Ireland, there’s still plenty of reason to continue aiding the family, McGarrity said.
“We wanted to keep the momentum going because everything we raise goes directly to the family to help them with living costs so they can concentrate on Oscar’s situation. They won’t have to worry about bills. We started out thinking we would be able to raise maybe a month or two worth of bill money, but it has progressed to be a lot, lot more than that.”
Of course, nothing as successful as the Sunday fundraiser happens without plenty of help. Among others, McGarrity said, Laurence Banville of Irish Network-Philadelphia, Celtic Clothing entrepreneur Charlie Lord, and Tir na Nog general manager Roger Power were a huge help.
All that work clearly paid off, McGarrity said, looking around the bar crawling with guests. “In our wildest dreams, we never thought it would be anything like this.”
com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/hollingsworth-270×300.jpg” alt=”Frank Hollingsworth” width=”270″ height=”300″ /> Frank Hollingsworth
Never volunteer. That’s the old saying. Frank Hollingsworth doesn’t believe it, and it’s a good thing for the Philadelphia Irish Center/Commodore Barry Club.
Hollingsworth, a member of the center’s board of directors, is close to realizing a goal he set for himself several weeks ago: launching the first-ever “Irish Gathering,” a kind of open house for the rambling facility at Carpenter Lane and Emlen Street in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia—home to the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band, the Danny Browne Ancient Order of Hibernians Division, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, the Cummins School of Irish Dance, and so much more.
“This idea has been sort of on my mind for a while,” Hollingsworth says. “I’m a great believer in outreach, so I appointed myself outreach chairman.” With a good many old hands helping Hollingsworth pull everything together, the Irish Gathering should be an impressive affair.
The club is the living, breathing epicenter of Irish life in the Delaware Valley, and has been for years, but many Philly Irish folks are complete strangers to the place. Hollingsworth wants to bring them all into the Irish Center on Sunday, December 9, for a day of Gaelic schmoozing and socializing. He believes they’ll like what they see, and want to come back again and again.
“I know it’s been difficult to get people to come here, so I thought the thing to do would be to have an open house,” says Hollingsworth. “Some people have heard of the center, but they don’t know where it is. Where is Carpenter and Emlen? By doing this, it’ll let people know that there’s a lot going on here.”
Once upon a time, Hollingsworth himself was one of those curious strangers. Once drawn in, though, he knew he was going to be a regular. “I came here, and signed up to be a member. Then I volunteered to work in the Irish Center library, and then I stayed.”
The Irish Gathering promises to expose visitors to all of the groups and organizations that meet in the center on a regular basis. The open house begins at 10, fittingly, with a full Irish breakfast. The cost is $10.
After that, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald will present a live airing of their Sunday Irish radio shows. From 1 to 6 p.m., you can check out many local Irish organizations, including the Cummins School of Irish Dance, the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band, the Next Generation youth Irish music group, John Shields and his adult Irish dance group, Rince Ri School of Irish Dance, the Timoney dancers, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, the Danny Browne AOH division, and more. You’ll also get to hear some great Irish music, performed by Terry Kane, and Kevin McGillian and Friends.
If you’re looking for a great Christmas gift, you can check out the vendor tables. You can also pick up some great books, signed by the authors who will be on hand, including Tom Lyons (“You Can’t Get to Heaven on the Frankford El”); Tim McGrath (“John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail”), and Frank himself, co-author of “Northeast Philadelphia: A Brief History.” Marita Krivda Poxon, who is on the verge of publishing a book about the Irish in Philadelphia will also be there, Hollingsworth says.
For more details, visit the Irish Center website.
